Twelve months after losing an FA Cup final for the first time, Arsenal restored the status quo in the women's game as they lifted the trophy for the fifth time in six years, extending their record number of victories in the competition to 11.

First-half goals by the Scottish internationals Kim Little and Julie Fleeting gave the Gunners a victory that was a vindication for their manager, Laura Harvey, whose debut season in charge was marred by last year's extra-time 3-2 defeat by Everton in the final but who has since taken her team to the Champions League semi-finals and now to a desperately desired FA Cup success.

"From a personal point of view this means everything," said Harvey, "but as a group the last 12 months have been tough. We said we wouldn't forget that feeling of last year and that has been our thing through the FA Cup – we wanted to make sure we brought it back home."

Bristol had never before appeared in a final, though three times they had gone out at the semi-final stage – on each occasion to Arsenal. They held their opponents to a 2-2 draw in the Super League only last week, but in the more pressurised environment of a Cup final they rarely matched Harvey's team.

Little's excellent 19th-minute individual goal and Fleeting's 32nd-minute header might have been added to with sharper finishing and the Academy manager, Mark Sampson, admitted: "We could have been dead and buried by half-time." Harvey added: "The way we played in the first half, no one in the domestic game would have lived with us."

Bristol went close to reducing the arrears after 68 minutes when Helen Bleazard's 20-yard free-kick struck the bar. But in reaching the final they have earned Champions League qualification along with Arsenal. "Nobody expected this of us," Sampson said. "We finished bottom of the League last season so this is a massive achievement for us."